The Spanish holocaust: inquisition and extermination in twentieth-century Spain

TLDR

The book presents a detailed account of the brutal persecution of Spaniards during the civil war and its lingering impact on the nation. It documents a mass extrajudicial murder of roughly 200,000 victims, with systematic abuse, torture, imprisonment, and exile, and identifies perpetrators and victims on both sides.

Abstract

Selected as Sunday Times History Book of Year for 2012, this is a meticulous work of scholarship from foremost historian of 20th-century Spain. The culmination of more than a decade of research, 'The Spanish Holocaust' seeks to reflect intense horrors visited upon Spain during its ferocious civil war, consequences of which still reverberate bitterly today. The brutal, murderous persecution of Spaniards between 1936 and 1945 is a truth that should have been told long ago. Paul Preston here offers first comprehensive picture of what he terms the Spanish Holocaust: mass extra-judicial murder of some 200,000 victims, cursory military trials, torture, systematic abuse of women and children, sweeping imprisonment, horrors of exile. Those culpable for crimes committed on both sides of Civil War are named; their victims identified. 'The Spanish Holocaust' illuminates one of darkest, least-known eras of modern European history.